Knapsack Problem using Branch and Bound method

0/1 Knapsack using Branch and Bound

Branch and bound is an algorithm design paradigm which is generally used for solving combinatorial optimization problems. These problems typically exponential in terms of time complexity and may require exploring all possible permutations in worst case. Branch and Bound solve these problems relatively quickly.

Branch and bound is very useful technique for searching a solution but in worst case, we need to fully calculate the entire tree. At best, we only need to fully calculate one path through the tree and prune the rest of it.

Let us consider below 0/1 Knapsack problem to understand Branch and Bound.

Given two integer arrays val[0..n-1] and wt[0..n-1] that represent values and weights associated with n items respectively. Find out the maximum value subset of val[] such that sum of the weights of this subset is smaller than or equal to Knapsack capacity W.